tectonics
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Bakugo's life plan had not included becoming quirkless. But now that he, at this young age, has been, he has to rethink things. Come middle school, everything has resettled. That is, until Izuku, of all people, suddenly gets a Quirk. Or it seems like he does anyway.


warnings: implied child abuse, harm to a minor, Bakugo cursing a lot

* * *

Prologue - A Fuse, Doused!

Bakugo Katsuki was going to be a hero.

He was always going to win. He was going to leave no stone unturned, no villain unpunished. And with a powerful Quirk like this and enough practice, it would be better than easy. It would be a goddamn joke.

Like Deku.

Stupid Midoriya Izuku. Thought he was so great, so tough. He couldn't blow up anything, couldn't do much more than think and be a meat shield. And yet he had the absolute _fucking_ gall to want to be a hero. Like Katsuki. Like All Might.

As if that twerp could be _anything_ like All Might. He didn't even have the smile. He couldn't even attempt the swagger. He was Quirkless and useless. Not like Katsuki.

If only the idiot could just accept it like everyone else.

But because he didn't, it left Katsuki with no choice to drag him down into the mud again that day and escape from the reluctant teacher saviors. They didn't want to help him, the Quirkless little weirdo. They only felt sorry for him. Besides, they were also stupid. How could they possibly understand? Deku, like it or not, followed him. It was natural he took the lump of things.

If that wasn't true, then the idiot would leave him alone and stop following. But he never would. He liked when Katsuki listened to his hero analyses. Those were useful, funnily enough, but that was about all. His mother said it was because he watched too much television. Which was Deku's mom's fault.

He didn't want to blame her though. She made really good cookies.

He kicked a can up into the air and then, with a grin, watched it explode by his own hand. Seriously who littered anymore? It had been a crime _before_ Quirks, what made people think that it wouldn't be a crime now? Bunch of punks. Soon as he had his license in his hand, by god he would teach people what for.

It did give him a lot of ammo to practice with at least.

"Hmph!" he grunted, kicking another can into the air. With a derisive cackle, imagining it the head of a cowering villain, he let it blow to pieces, raining in the muggy air. He scowled. "Wish it would just fucking rain…"

His mouth was bad, he knew, and his mother smacked him like no tomorrow every time she heard him or heard about him. But he was in the right! He was just establishing the hierarchy! Everyone else had weak or situation oriented Quirks and no ability to use it unless the timing was right. He was just making his position known now.

In Yuuei, it would be the same way. He was just going to start preparing for the inevitable. It was his way of doing things and looking to the future.

Even if that meant trampling over some bodies along the way.

Katsuki paused in the nearest corner store, snagging some chips with his allowance money before taking that final road home. Like his mother taught him, no matter how much of a hurry he could have been in, he did not go into the alleys. No matter how much of a badass he was, he did not go look for trouble.

And that, in the end, was what screwed him over.

A little girl barrelled into his legs and before he could curse her out properly, a man entered into view. He had the weirdest damn mask, like the beak of a bird.

And that man was holding a gun.

Those two things were the last things he could consciously remember. The rest went right out of his head as a strange clarity filled his brain. Here was a civilian who needed his help. And he was a young hero to be, ready to prove his worth.

Bakugo was young enough to believe he was ready and worthy.

* * *

Katsuki awoke surrounded by white.

White ceiling, white smell, pale lights that made what he could see of his fingers look chalky and dead. The palms felt too dry. They didn't even feel like his.

Then he turned his head a little more and was smothered in his father's chest as he was held in a tight hug. For the first time that he could remember, he could feel the man's strength in his arms. His father was a timid man, timid and soft like Deku. He fell into line with his wife, who ran their little world with an iron fist.

Not now. Now the man shook with the explosive temper Katsuki was intimately familiar with. He had always thought it was from his mother.

From a distance, he could hear her, sniping at the nurse assistant. He always hated when she did that. She hadn't been a nurse since he was a baby, what right did she have to go off like that?

"Dad," he managed to say, staring at the white of the room. "What the hell?"

Dad never scolded him for his language before and he didn't start now. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"All right from what?" Katsuki grumbled. His head hurt a little, and he could feel his hair itching underneath some gauze.

The man swallowed, Katsuki felt it in his chest. "Katsuki… you were attacked by a villain while protecting a little girl…"

"Oh." Well, that was a problem but he felt okay, Weirdly tired, but okay. His arms felt sluggish, somehow, like he was moving them through the lake to tread water rather than up to pat his father's shoulders. "Did I keep her safe? You're acting like I died."

His father's wispy expression seemed to sink further. "Yes, you-you did. She's in custody right now. But you see… you were shot and hit your head. The doctors examining you, well… they said something in the bullet is preventing your quirk from working, it's stopping the flow of nitroglycerin in your body."

Katsuki stared at him. Then he laughed. "COme on dad, pull the other one."

His father didn't smile.

So Katsuki scowled, a belligerent rage bubbling behind his eyes. "Dad seriously, don't fucking joke like that."

His father only continued to look at him.

And Katsuki continued to not believe him.

* * *

Katsuki didn't go to a school for a week. No one came to see him except Deku, who came daily to give him homework and to be cursed out of the room. He never really quavered and after the first time he was shouted at, did not ask much at all about the villain. He must have known what the fuck happened. Katsuki's parents must have told him. He must know by now that the best of the best was no better than him now, a fucking Quirkless loser.

Yet he said nothing. He didn't laugh and point, he talked a lot about heroes and their latest feats. His discussion of Quirk application was strangely clinical. He almost seemed to avoid it. It was like pity.

He hated pity.

Katsuki had tried every single day he was in the bed and every hour he was awake at home. His sweat was just sweat. It didn't even let out a puff of smoke. He'd had to pick up his room four times.

The doctors said it was only temporary. Katsuki said they should hurry the fuck up.

"Kacchan."

He looked back at Deku, interrupted from his thoughts, and for once he was too tired to do anything. "What?"

Deku swallowed and looked him right in the eye. He trembled where he stood, like a stupid leaf in the wind. But he said it anyway. "When you're ready to talk about it, you can tell me. I…" He swallowed again. "I'm going to figure it out and find a way to fix you. ANd then… and then we'll go to Yuuei together. So don't give up."

Before Katsuki could even think about what the idiot had said, Deku darted out of his room and was out the door before even a single swear word could come out.

Katsuki ended up sitting back against his pillows. Everything in his body started to storm with anger. Where did that scrub get off saying that? How dare he just waltz in like he _got_ it huh? He'd never had a Quirk to lose. Fucking Deku. He was going to get better all right and on his own terms. Not the terms of some real Quirkless idiot.

He'd show him. He'd show all of them. And then he'd show Yuuei. Bakugo Katsuki did not go down that easily.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_ : I said I'd get a long BNHA fic out and I am! I've had this one in my head since everything with Eri started and now it's decided to form itself into words. Please let me know what you think!

Challenges: Three-sided box, New Years Long Haul, Epic Masterclass BNHA 3, Diversity list AMF K5.


End file.
